Prince Aly Khan Hospital to make way for two high-rises

The two towers in Mazgaon will be used for free-sale and to rehouse existing tenants; a new hospital will come up on a nearby plot.

The 200-bed Prince Aly Khan Hospital, one of the city’s largest charitable hospitals, will be razed to make way for two high-rises on the Aga Hall Estate property in the heart of the city at Mazgaon.

While one of the high-rises, 48 storeys tall, will be used to re-house the existing tenants, about 200 of them, the other tower, a 57-storey building, roughly 233 metres tall, will be used for free-sale. The hospital will be rebuilt on another plot of land across the road from its current location.

According to its website, the hospital, part of the Aga Khan Development Network, has 201 in-patient beds and receives over 1,25,000 outpatients a year. It also provides free consultations to the poor. In addition to the hospital, the Aga Hall Estate houses the Aga Hall, a Jamat khana (both built around 1900), three residential buildings, a number of tenements and an unused school building.

The high-rises are part of the Prince Aly Khan Trust’s redevelopment plan. Both buildings will have multiple basements. Over 700 spots for car parking and over 180 spots for two-wheeler parking have been earmarked in the plan. The proposal has been submitted to the BMC’s high-rise committee. Since the hospital is a charitable trust and is registered with the Charity Commissioner, the commissioner’s approval is required as well.

The listed architect for the project is PG Patki Architects while the municipal consultants are Planet E Consultants. According to their website, PG Patki lists a number of Oberoi properties in their portfolio, including the Oberoi Mumbai, the Oberoi Delhi and the Oberoi Amarvilas in Agra.

Sandip Isore, the founder of Planet E consultants, told Mumbai Mirror that the 48-storey building will be used to rehabilitate the existing tenants while the 57-storey building will be free-sale, as per the redevelopment policy. Under the state’s Floor Space Index (FSI) policy, charitable establishments, such as hospitals, have to pay a five per cent premium for additional FSI. Isore explained that the hospital couldn’t be built in the same location because there wouldn’t be enough space left over after building the high-rises. He said the new hospital would be larger than the existing one and will have 300 to 350 beds. He hoped the project, once approved, would be completed within five to six years.

The hospital was originally set up in 1945 as a 16-bed facility in a rented flat at Dongri and was called the Ismaili General Hospital. It was originally run by volunteers and only treated members of the Ismaili community. It moved to its present location in 1955 with the help of the Aga Hall Estate. Three years later, the hospital opened its doors to the general public.

Earlier this year, the 81-year-old Aga Khan, Shah Karim Al Hussaini, visited Mumbai to mark the diamond jubilee of his ascension as the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslim community. After his visit, a fundraising concert for the Prince Aly Khan hospital was held in Goregaon.

Congress MLA Amin Patel, who lives on the property, told Mirror that the motivation for the project is to expand the hospital. He said the Aga Khan had met with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on March 1 to discuss the expansion and the CM had assured him of the state’s assistance. “The high-rises are a by-product of the hospital expansion,” Patel said. According to him, the redevelopment will also include an IB school, which will come up where the hospital now stands, while the Diamond Jubilee school across the road will be demolished to make room for the new hospital. “It will be a multi-specialty hospital and the property will have ultramodern amenities,” Patel said.

Dr Sanjay Oak, the chief executive officer of the hospital, said the project was in a nascent stage and declined to comment further on the story.

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